As the Milwaukee Bucks scour the league to find ways to surround Giannis Antetokounmpo with better talent, Michael Porter Jr. is a player on their radar leading up to the Feb. 5 trade deadline.
Per The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Porter is considered a “name worth watching” for the Bucks.
Porter’s performance with the Brooklyn Nets is helping to elevate his status. The 27-year-old is having the best season of his career with 25.8 points on 49.6 percent shooting (41.0 percent from three), 7.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in 26 starts.
One potential issue for the Bucks is Porter has played so well that it might end up pricing them out of the trade market given their limited resources.
During a recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, ESPN’s Tim Legler said the feeling among people within the league is that Porter has “completely changed his trade” value in a positive direction with how he has performed in Brooklyn.
The Bucks don’t control their first-round draft pick again until 2031. Given Antetokounmpo’s age (31), a first-round pick five years from now could be incredibly valuable to any team around the league.
Brooklyn could set itself up to be a future juggernaut in the Eastern Conference with up to seven first-round picks from 2026 to ’29. Adding a Bucks pick in 2031 to that would give the organization a chance to add another pillar in the draft or as a key piece in a separate trade for a superstar-level player.
Milwaukee is in a desperate state right now in trying to keep Antetokounmpo happy to avoid a situation where he asks out.
It may not be in the best interest of the organization to make another big trade to get rid of future assets, but the Bucks are dug in so deep right now that they may not feel like they have a choice if they can get a player of Porter’s caliber.
The Bucks are currently 11th in the Eastern Conference with a 14-19 record. Their problems are on both ends of the floor, but the offense in particular has been among the worst in the NBA. They are 23rd in rating and 26th in points per game.
